When it comes to cocktail watches, they don’t come much more glamorous than Piaget’s Limelight. The name of this classic collection from the 1970s takes its inspiration from the parties held by the maison during the era, frequented by A-listers from Elizabeth Taylor and Jackie Kennedy to Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Cary Grant and Sammy Davis Jr. And the Limelight was certainly worthy of these fabulous soirees, with its luxurious design defined by its sensual lines, cambered case and distinctive asymmetrical lugs.

A new Limelight Gala dials up the drama even further, a striking rose-gold model complete with head-turning rainbow gems that sweep around the bezel. The latter, in itself, is a particularly demanding feat, with Piaget’s gemologists undergoing a painstaking process to source the exact colours, carat, cut, and clarity. Once the perfect picks have been found, an intricate gem-setting process, known as ‘sertie descendu’, begins to create the seamless transition between the dazzling array of green tsavorites and coloured sapphires.

The timepiece also showcases another of Piaget’s specialisms, as one of the few remaining maisons with the artisanal know-how to create delicate, hand-made gold bracelets. Spectacular to the eye and beautifully fluid on the skin, they start with hundreds of tightly assembled gold links, which are then intricately hand engraved. Here the dial and bracelet are adorned with Piaget’s signature ‘Palace’ pattern, taking two and eight hours respectively to complete the decoration alone – a testament to the attention to detail that goes into each of the maison’s creations.

piaget.com